Patents Examined by Shuyi S Liu
  • Patent number: 9623347
    Abstract: Provided is a centrifuge that preferably performs processes such as dispersion of a material to be processed while enhancing convenience for users. A centrifuge 1 of the present invention includes an ultrasonic wave generation source 10 that generates ultrasonic waves and a storage container 20 that stores a material to be processed M. The centrifuge 1 of the present invention also includes a rotation mechanism 30. The rotation mechanism 30 rotates the storage container 20 around a rotation axis L tilted relative to a virtual line V extended in a vertical direction in such a manner that the ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic wave generation source 10 are constantly applicable to the material to be processed M.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: THINKY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takayuki Takatsuka
  • Patent number: 9616430
    Abstract: The invention relates to a centrifugal separator for separation of at least two components of a fluid mixture which have different densities. The centrifugal separator comprises a rotor arranged for rotation about a vertical axis of rotation (R) and having a rotor wall which surrounds a separating chamber within the rotor, with an inlet adapted to feeding the fluid mixture into the rotor's separating chamber, and at least one outlet adapted to discharging outwardly from the rotor a component separated from the fluid mixture. A rotor shaft supports the rotor and is drivably connected to a motor (M) for rotation of the rotor about the axis of rotation (R). A hub is provided outside the rotor, and the hub and the rotor shaft are arranged to be connected together from the outside of the rotor by means of a lockable and releasable fastening which is configured to lock the rotor shaft relative to the hub in both a torque-transmitting and an axial force-transmitting way.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: Alfa Laval Corporate AB
    Inventors: Roland Isaksson, Peter Thorwid
  • Patent number: 9610590
    Abstract: A centrifugal separating assembly for separating a fluid biological product into discrete components by centrifugation is disclosed. The assembly includes a first container defining a first cavity adapted to receive a human biological product, the first container having a circular upper wall, a cylindrical sidewall, and a concave shaped bottom wall. The assembly further includes a second container defining a second cavity adapted to receive discrete components, the second container having a convex shaped upper wall, a second cylindrical wall, and a circular bottom wall; and a tubular conduit providing fluid communication between the first cavity and the second cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Inventor: Ziad Hamandi
  • Patent number: 9586213
    Abstract: A centrifuge chamber for separating a sample into at least two components, including a cylinder having a base plate and a cover plate, and a rotational axis assembly having at least one port for input and/or output of the sample, the port being connected to a tube located on or in the base plate and/or cover plate, and the tube having one or more openings into the centrifuge chamber, where at least one opening of the tube is provided with at least one flat-shaped deflector having a surface lying substantially parallel with the cylinder, and a width at its base of at most 1/10 of the inner circumference of the cylinder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: Miltenyi Biotec GmbH
    Inventors: Eiad Kabaha, Ralf-Peter Peters, Stefan Miltenyi, Juliane Stuth
  • Patent number: 9579665
    Abstract: A centrifugal separator includes a rotating body rotating in use around an axis. The rotating body comprises a bowl, which comprises a base at one longitudinal end of said bowl, said base defining a rear longitudinal area. An outlet passage extends through the base and an outlet housing is provided in the rear longitudinal area. The outlet housing is communicating with the outlet passage to receive liquid therefrom and the outlet housing has an outlet opening discharging in use liquid from the rotating body. The outlet opening comprises a weir edge defining in normal use a level of a surface of a liquid in the bowl. The outlet housing is rotatable around an adjustment axis and the outlet opening is placed in a side wall offset from the adjustment axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: ALFA LAVAL CORPORATE AB
    Inventors: Bent Madsen, Henrik Reiff
  • Patent number: 9574413
    Abstract: A drill cuttings solidification system includes a cuttings tank for storage of a drill cuttings material, an additive tank for storage of a solidification material, and a solidification chamber. The cuttings tank and the additive tank are operatively connected to a portable unit. The cuttings tank includes a cuttings auger assembly for conveyance of the drill cuttings material to a cuttings outlet. The additive tank includes an additive auger assembly for conveyance of the solidification material to an additive outlet. The solidification chamber includes a housing enclosing the cuttings outlet and the additive outlet, and an impeller for mixing drill cuttings material transferred through the cuttings outlet and solidification material transferred through the additive outlet. The system further includes a discharge assembly extending from the solidification chamber to a discharge outlet. The discharge assembly is configured to rotate and vertically pivot a discharge conduit relative to the portable unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Inventor: Michael Charles Farquhar
  • Patent number: 9566540
    Abstract: The invention provides a filtering and centrifugation device, comprising a barrel, a volume in the barrel for receiving a fluid sample to be processed, a filter medium, at least one piston movable in the barrel to force fluid in the volume through the filter medium to produce a filtrate, and a space for pelleting particulate material. The device is centrifugeable, and said space is located in or communicates with the volume and is located preferably away from the filter medium such that the particulate material does not or at least not completely clog the filter medium during such centrifugation of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: EMD Millipore Corporation
    Inventors: Luc Felden, Sebastien Jouette
  • Patent number: 9566591
    Abstract: A closable centrifuge cup comprising a cup and a lid which can be placed on the cup edge to close the cup opening and can be fastened under tension by means of at least one clamping element with its lid edge to the cup edge. The cup edge or a gasket arranged in the region of the cup edge protrudes further in the direction towards the lid edge in a region remote from the at least one clamping element in the circumferential direction of the cup edge than in a region situated closer to the at least one clamping element. Alternatively, the lid edge or a gasket arranged in the region of the lid edge protrudes further in the direction towards the cup edge in a region remote from the at least one clamping element in the circumferential direction of the lid edge than in a region situated closer to the at least one clamping element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Thermo Electron LED GmbH
    Inventor: Norman Ballhause
  • Patent number: 9561513
    Abstract: A method for the continuous processing of a product such as a vegetable or animal oil or fat. The processing occurs via a separation into two liquid phases and a solid phase. The method step includes processing the product, the processing occurring in a centrifuge arranged as a separator, the separator including a rotatable drum, a disk stack having risers arranged in the drum, a product feed having a feed tube, a first separator disk to discharge a lighter liquid phase from the drum, a second separator disk to discharge a heavier liquid phase from the drum, and a solids discharge opening to discharge a solids phase from the drum. A separation zone is formed between the lighter phase and the heavier phase in the separator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: GEA Mechanical Equipment GmbH
    Inventors: Wilfried Mackel, Klaus-Peter Eickhoff
  • Patent number: 9527012
    Abstract: A system operating as a centrifugal, liquid-liquid separator may be controlled, and even optimized, by automatic control of back pressure to establish an optimum position of the dispersion band therein. Optimizing to minimize impurities (from each other) in each of two separated phases is possible, even simultaneously, by reliance on a processor setting the settling lengths of both heavy and light phases at the same value. Settling length, defined in accordance with the invention, reflects a settling velocity multiplied by a residence time. Equating these lengths, for droplets of each in the other liquid, provides superior results over conventional settling theory maximizing settling area. Equalization of residence times did not provide an improvement over conventional settling theory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: ECONOVA, INC.
    Inventors: C. Michael Miller, D. Andrew Bell, Ngai Keung Tam
  • Patent number: 9522349
    Abstract: A method for processing a product is disclosed. The method includes providing a separator having a rotatable centrifugal drum and a plate assembly arranged in the drum. The product is supplied into the drum. One or more of a solids phase and at least two liquid phases are separated from the product. One or more of the at least two liquid phases and the solids phase is discharged out of the drum. The supplying of the product occurs in one of a continuous and a discontinuous cyclic volume stream performed at a constant cyclic frequency where the constant cyclic frequency has a period duration which is dependent on one or more of the parameters of an inner and outer radius of a plate, an inflow stream in an intermediate space between the plate and an adjacent plate, a plate angle, and a distance of the plate to the adjacent plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: GEA Mechanical Equipment GmbH
    Inventors: Julian Konig, Bernd Terwey, Wilfried Mackel, Andreas Penkl, Thomas Bathelt, Kathrin Quiter
  • Patent number: 9517475
    Abstract: A centrifuge including: a rotor configured to be rotatably driven; a rotor chamber accommodating the rotor therein; and a protector provided at an outer periphery of the rotor chamber, wherein the protector includes at least one metal plate which is wound in an overlapping state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: HITACHI KOKI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shoji Kusumoto, Yoshitaka Imoto
  • Patent number: 9492828
    Abstract: A housing for an automated centrifuge with side and top access is disclosed. The housing includes an inner housing (104) for enclosing at least one labware nest (108) of the automated centrifuge, the inner housing having a top and a substantially cylindrical body, wherein the inner housing includes an opening through both a portion of the top and a portion of the body; and a door (114) configured to move between an open position in which the door exposes the opening and a closed position in which the door blocks the opening.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: HighRes Biosolutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. Nichols, Louis J. Guarracina
  • Patent number: 9463475
    Abstract: A discontinuous centrifuge has a rotatable centrifuge drum with a casing. The cylindrical centrifuge casing is provided with holes to discharge a liquid produced during the centrifugation. The holes have a cross-section with an elliptical shape. The cross-section of the holes is widened from the inside to the outside. The hole wall is continuous in this case. The diameter of the cross-sections of the holes parallel to the drum axis on the inside of the casing is equal to the diameter of the cross-sections of the holes parallel to the drum axis on the outside of the casing. The diameter of the cross-sections of the holes in the peripheral direction, on the other hand, on the inside of the casing is smaller than the diameter of the cross-sections of the holes in the peripheral direction on the outside of the casing. The area of the elliptical holes may be additionally also divided by webs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: BMA Braunschweigische Maschinenbauanstalt AG
    Inventors: Hans-Heinrich Westendarp, Dirk Spangenberg
  • Patent number: 9463473
    Abstract: A method for processing a product provides phase separation into two liquid phases and a solids phase. The method includes processing the product in a continuously operating centrifuge arranged as a separator including a rotatable drum having a vertical rotational axis, discharging a lighter liquid phase continuously from the drum, and discharging a heavier liquid phase discontinuously from the drum. The separator has a disk stack having risers arranged in the drum, a product feed tube, a first separation disk for discharging the lighter liquid phase, a second separator disk for discharging the heavier liquid phase, solids discharge openings for discharging the solids phase from the drum, and a separation zone formed between the lighter liquid phase and the heavier liquid phase in the separator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: GEA Mechanical Equipment GmbH
    Inventors: Wilfried Mackel, Klaus-Peter Eickoff
  • Patent number: 9457359
    Abstract: A device for insertion into a rotor of a centrifuge has at least two bodies stacked one above the other in a stacking direction inside a housing insertable into a holder of the rotor of the centrifuge. The two bodies are movably disposed in relation to each other inside the housing in order to fluidically couple, in a first phase, responding to a rotation of the rotor, a first cavity of the first body to a first cavity of the second body and to fluidically couple in a second phase a second cavity of the first body to the first cavity of the second body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignees: ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG, HAHN-SCHICKARD-GESELLSCHAFT FUER ANGEWANDTE FORSCH
    Inventors: Felix Von Stetten, Marion Finkbeiner, Roland Zengerle, Nils Paust, Guenter Roth
  • Patent number: 9452254
    Abstract: The object of the invention is to provide a blood separation device that can reduce the total time for drawing blood to obtain high-concentration platelet liquid, thereby reducing the binding time of the blood donor. The device includes a temporary storage bag (Y2) (also serves as a buffy coat bag) which is a whole blood bag for storing whole blood drawn from a blood donor. The controlling unit of the device controls the device to draw whole blood from the blood donor in parallel with at least either a circulation flow step or an acceleration step, thereby storing the drawn whole blood in the temporary storage bag (Y2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignee: TERUMO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shigeyuki Kimura, Takemi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 9446417
    Abstract: Centrifuges have been designed in the past for centrifuging multi-welled containers, but they are limited in centripetal acceleration or have a large footprint. The invention provides a centrifuge with a high centripetal acceleration and imbalance tolerance while maintaining a small footprint and being able to integrate with laboratory automation equipment. Methods and apparatuses for centrifugation include a rotor assembly positioned within a shield assembly suspended in a centrifuge. The rotor assembly is operably connected to the motor for rotating payloads (e.g., multi-welled containers) around an axis. The shield assembly is positioned such that the center of mass is aligned with the axis of rotation of the rotor assembly and the plane containing the rotational imbalance force vector. This alignment allows rotation of the container with an acceleration of at least 2000 g (or at least 3000 g, 4000 g, 5000 g, etc.).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: BioNex Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Gaudio, Eric Rollins
  • Patent number: 9440244
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a centrifuge rotor, in particular a laboratory centrifuge rotor, including a rotor body, wherein the rotor body at least partially includes a porous metal or a porous metal alloy and an armoring located radially outside with respect to the rotation axis of the rotor body is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: EPPENDORF AG
    Inventors: Matthias Schmidt, Steffen Arnold, Fritz Peter Schulze, Rajko Bittner, Stefan Boenisch
  • Patent number: 9433877
    Abstract: A system operating as a centrifugal, liquid-liquid separator may be controlled, and even optimized, by automatic control of back pressure to establish an optimum position of the dispersion band therein. Optimizing to minimize impurities (from each other) in each of two separated phases is possible, even simultaneously, by reliance on a processor setting the settling lengths of both heavy and light phases at the same value. Settling length, defined in accordance with the invention, reflects a settling velocity multiplied by a residence time. Equating these lengths, for droplets of each in the other liquid, provides superior results over conventional settling theory maximizing settling area. Equalization of residence times did not provide an improvement over conventional settling theory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: ECONOVA, INC.
    Inventors: C. Michael Miller, D. Andrew Bell, Ngai Keung Tam